Day by day adventures of a new solo OTR driver

OK, who is ready for todays adventures?

Wake up right at the end of my ten hour break ready to go. Stopped at one of the service areas off of I-90 last night. Head West, nothing exciting along I-90, just set the cruise and go. Easy stuff. Stopped after 50 miles and fueled, then off I went again. Got off on OH-2 right before the turnpike, had no issues getting through there to 280 except for some minor construction delays on the 2-lane section. Little rain here and there, blah blah no problems.

Head north for Detroit, lots of traffic but overall everything is moving smoothly.

Finally reach my exit where I start heading into the fun stuff.

Lets recap the issues:

1. I'm running 2 hours late due to the issues with my previous load. I called CS last night and let them know this. The customer is supposed to close at 2pm. I get told to deliver anyway. I know the customer is going to be closed. 99.9% sure. Why argue though.

2. I cannot find the customer on Google maps. Address brings up some random spot. Try to look at the route the Qualcomm wants me to take. Just see trees. Right in the middle of a neighborhood. Useless.

3. I cannot get directions from the customer, because they are closed. Again, why argue with Schneider? Waste of time.

4. Qualcomm directions appear to be crap. Location is "driver verified" though. What more can I do than try?

Anyway, back to driving. Exit off the loop around Detroit. Get on to M-1. Qualcomm wants me to make this stupid turn in one of the u-turn areas in the middle of the road to get moving the other direction. Well, I fit in there, its obviously designed to be big enough for trucks to u-turn there, and so it wasn't an illegal u-turn Schneider could whine at me about. So I do that. 4 lanes of traffic 1 way on each side. After sitting for 5 minutes while Grandpa took his sweet time to merge his Buick SUV into traffic, my turn. Luckily all 4 lanes are open thanks to the red light down the street. Hammer down. "In 600 feet take a sharp right" squawks my co-pilot inside the Qualcomm box. Yeah, "SHARP RIGHT". Check mirrors. No traffic has caught up yet. Time for the button hook. No, this ain't no button hook. This is the button winch. Block right 2 lanes with trailer and swing out, tractor in lanes 3 and 4. Cars on either side of the road I'm turning on to. Its so sharp I can't see down it until my tractor begins facing down the road. See no truck sign. Yes, placing the no trucks sign on the road that you can't see as you turn into it is VERY HELPFUL. Why not do the smart thing and place a "NO TRUCKS RIGHT TURN" on the main road? Ahh, that would make too much sense. To late now. Local cop ahead sees me making the turn. Stops and lets me make the turn. Halfway except blue lights. He doesn't care. This is Detroit. Goes about his day.

Now, finally headed towards my destination. 1 more turn to go, but still about a half a mile to get there. Some tiny little suburban neighboorhood. Nice green 1/4 acre lawns, family cars parked on each side of the road. Pretty little canopy of trees arching over the road. Everyones outside working in their yard. My bright orange Schneider truck, TA14XXXX trailer in all its glory doing the slow roll through their street. Ripping small branches off the canopy of trees above and scattering them on the pavement. The driver of this truck, window down, slight rocking movement of the cab as he gently shifts the gears. Deadpan look on his face. Amount of ****S given about anything at this point: ZERO.

Reach the end of this street and thankfully the canopy of trees. Make a right turn on to another street with houses on one side and a few industrial businesses on the other, destination 400 feet ahead. Arrived it says. Arrived to what. A ****ing wall. No nothing. Go down the street further. Still nothing. 4 ways, set parking brakes. Give up. Call in. DEFEAT.

Explain to the DBL that works my main DBLs boards on Fridays and weekends whats going on. I get a kick out of this guy, I wish he was my regular DBL. He echos my sense of complete bewilderment when he tries to find out where the heck this place is on Google maps. I tell him I tried too and had absolutely no luck. He calls CS. CS gets back saying that the only person at the business is the accountant, and that it is indeed closed. NO ****, I TOLD YOU THIS LAST NIGHT. Finally they set up a relay. I have the DBL look a few roads ahead of me on Google maps to confirm my suspicion that that might be a safer way out of this mess. Finally get out of that craphole. Never did see the customers building, absolutely NO IDEA where it is. Plowed through Friday 5pm Detroit traffic south to our secure lot. Drop relay, leave driver a note QUALCOMM DIRECTIONS TOTAL S*** DO NOT FOLLOW, CALL CUSTOMER FOR DIRECTIONS IN. Walk over to truck stop across the street from the abandoned OC. Eat pancakes at IHOP. Another day down. Another adventure for the storybooks.

 

Headed to Georgia... got loaded up in Michigan earlier today. They were slow to load but I didn't care... no hurry at all. Load doesn't deliver to the 6th, I made it down to the Indy OC today. Need to look at my hours as I'll start running on recap hours tomorrow, haven't decided if I want to take my time and try to squeeze a restart in between now and the delivery, or just keep running on recap hours and maybe see about having it relayed. Not gonna worry about that now, time for some food and a much needed shower.

 

This is purely just based on observation, but I think it seems to depend on the size of the actual OC you are based out of too. From talking with some of the drivers I went to orientation with at Charlotte that ended up being based out of different OCs, the ones running out of the smaller (or downright tiny) OCs like Obetz, Lebanon, etc., are averaging far more miles than the ones based out of the big OCs. Maybe its because the DBLs at the smaller OCs don't have a higher-up hovering over their head and are generally a little more relaxed and willing to "work" with drivers than the ones with someone always watching over them at the larger OCs? Just a guess...

Anyway, speaking of Lebanon sitting here at that OC now. Ran down here from Indy today. Wish they had some food here, might wait until later this evening and see if I can find a pizza place nearby that will deliver. I'd much rather spend the night here than some truck stop near Nashville...